TOM CARTER - LONG TIME UNDERGROUND
three lobed 2015, edition of 900
"While Carter shrugs off suggestions that Long Time Underground represents some sort of sea change in his approach to making music, this (along with its companion post-illness release, Numinal Entry, on Halatern) comprises his first solo work this decade. Long Time Underground, moreover, is the first solo studio recording Carter has ever done.
Long Time Underground is almost unsettling in its purity. A collection of fractal guitar études, the album is comprised mostly of composed material—some of which was written in the studio, some worked out in performance over the past few years. Each song was set down live without overdubs, and the result is an almost confessional intimacy." - THREE LOBED
LTU is the culmination of CARTER's solo career, a perfect distillation of the stunning stark beauty he creates both sonically and visually, all elements are fully realized and flawlessly executed, synthesizing the smoked out atmospheric loner folk of ROOT KING, the searing bliss of ALL AHEAD NOW and the elevated solo guitar excursions of NUMINAL ENTRY, my favorite works of his which i regard as creative peaks at different times, in different styles, all of which are on glorious display here, paralleling like-minded HARMONY OF THE SPHERE'ists BARDO POND, LOREN CONNORS and ROY MONTGOMERY, with echoes of FRIPP & ENO and a nice SPACEMEN 3 motif on "prussian book of the dead" that drifts on for a while before being eclipsed by a blast of fuzz like a beam of light hitting your unblinking third eye until you see god - but not only is LTU an ideal focal point, it may also be a critical inflection point as THREE LOBED's write up points out, being CARTER's first solo work recorded in a professional studio - despite over a decade's worth of solo releases delivered by the likes of BLACKEST RAINBOW, DIGITALIS, ECLIPSE, IMPORTANT, ROOT STRATA and his own imprint WHOLLY OTHER, not to mention one of the most crucial discographies of all time in CHARALAMBIDES, after hearing LTU i can't help but wonder if he's just gettin started
LIMITED EDITION CASSETTES
